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Welcome to Wikinews! Getting a head start as a Wikinews contributor Welcome! Thank you for joining Wikinews; we'd love for you to stick around and get more involved. To help you get started we have a short essay that will guide you through the process of writing your first full article. There are many other things you can do on the project, but its lifeblood is new, current, stories written neutrally. As you get more involved you will want to look into the key policies for the project and other discussions you can participate in, so keep this message on your collaboration page and refer to the other links in it if you have problems or want to learn more.   Used to contributing to Wikipedia? See here. All Wikimedia projects have rules. Here are ours. Listed here are the official policies of the project, you may be referred to some of them if your early attempts at writing articles don't follow them. Don't let this discourage you, we all had to start somewhere. The rules and guides laid out here are intended to keep content to high standards and meet certain rules the Wikimedia Foundation applies to all projects. It may seem like a lot to read, but you do not have to go through it all in one sitting, or know them all before you can start contributing. Remember, you should enjoy contributing to the project. If you're really stuck come chat with the regulars. There's usually someone in chat who will be happy to help, but they may not respond instantly. The core policies Neutral point of view Cite sources Writing an article Content guide Style guide Reviewing articles Places to go, people to meet Wiki projects work because a sense of community forms around the project. Although writing news is far more individualistic than contributing to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, people often need minor help with things like spelling and copyediting. If a story isn't too old you might be able to expand it, or if it is disputed you may be able to find some more sources and rescue it before it is listed for deletion. There are always discussions going on about how the site could be improved, and your input is of value. Check the links here to see where you can give input to the running of the Wikinews project. Find help and get involved The Water Cooler The Latest News The Newsroom Articles for deletion Audio Wikinews Recent Changes Write your first article for Wikinews! Use the following box to help you create your first article. Simply type in a title to your story and press "Create page". Then start typing text to your story into the new box that will come up. When you're done, press "save page". That's all there is to it! It is recommended you read the article guide before starting. Also make sure to check the list of recently created articles to see if your story hasn't already been reported upon.

Contents 1 Wikinews Bulletin delivery 2 About the Article"The Bitter Reality of BITS-Pilani,Dubai 3 Herman Van Rompuy named as first permanent EU President (sic) 4 Ping 5 New user here, pls assist 6 Wikimania 7 Serena Williams wins the 2010 Australian Open 8 Very nice wordplay

[edit] Wikinews Bulletin delivery

(Un-)subscribe  |  Archives  |  Tip Line  |  Editors Issue XI - May 17, 2008

Administrators, Accreditation and Arbitration Since our last edition, no users have been given the mop and bucket. You can currently vote on a request by Adambro (talk · contribs) No one has became an accredited reporter on Wikinews. There are currently no accreditation requests that you can vote on. The 2008 Arbitration Committee election has started. There are nine candidates and six places on the ArbCom. Voting ends on August 1. Featured Articles and News In Pictures No articles were promoted recently. Several candidates are waiting for your vote, including two exclusive interviews. Several images were featured on the main pages, which you can check out in the News In Picture archive. Several images have been featured on the Main Page .The latest of which is available below. - Credit: Muji Tra Although the 34th G8 Summit had ended, the demonstration of anti-globalists exposed a critical issue on poverty, etc.  » Full story Original reporting Since our last edition, many articles have claimed original reporting. Here are the most recent: 4 February 2010: Interview with Liz Mumby, independent candidate in Australian by-election for the Victorian state electorate of Altona 2 February 2010: Indiana Department of Homeland Security violates Wikipedia copyright 1 February 2010: Cricket: Caloundra defeat Glasshouse in Sunshine Coast, Queensland division one limited overs final 1 February 2010: Building collapses, leaving four dead in Hong Kong 30 January 2010: No people or animals hurt in rural Australian fire 28 January 2010: Victoria, Australia Police investigate suspicious fire near rural town 27 January 2010: Cricket: 'Politicians and Pals' defeat Buderim XI in Australia Day Twenty20 match 26 January 2010: Interview: PRS, the UK's music royalty collection society 22 January 2010: US President Obama proposes financial reform 22 January 2010: Storm causes Southern Californian residents to evacuate Several others wrote stories based on television sources. The Wikinews Reports blog activity was mostly related to some of these stories. You can ask any of the blog authors if you want to help out on the blog.

Editor's note In the last few months activity on Wikinews has started to increase again, and discussion has restarted on the embargoed wiki. Anonymous101 (talk) 11:50, 19 July 2008 (UTC) Site activity Wikinews supports the universal edit button firefox extention Move Wikinews:Story preperation into its own namespace (prepared:)? New rss feed extension prosed to be installed (see WC + Mailing list) Arbcom elections are now in progress. Discussion about flagged revisions is ongoing and in many places. This could be the biggest change to the Wikinews method since we abandoned the original article review system Brian proposes a new contest, and challenges everyone to get involved, donate something, or join! Try testing CSpurrier's new feed thingy. this may become the main wikinews feed at some point. Zach's new tool: Per category rss feed. Do a hard refresh, goto a category and click on the rss icon in your browser. (Now linked from most portals and categories via templates) Current RfAs: none Accreditation requests: none Wikinews Blog - Wikinews on Flickr - Wikimedia news - Wikipedia news - merchandise +/- IRC activity Some of the IRC topics include the embargoed Wiki . ... (add more here if you know more...) Wikimedia News Three new staff members were appointed, Rebecca Handler as the Foundation's Major Gifts Officer, Rand Montoya as Head of Community Giving and Frank Schulenburg as the public outreach coordinator. You can now contribute to discussion about the new community draft of the Wikimedia language policy which prevented the start of a Simple English Wikinews.

[edit] About the Article"The Bitter Reality of BITS-Pilani,Dubai

Well about the article, i have cited the source article from Gulf News. Actually i want to change the Article's main heading to "The Insight story of BITS-Pilani,Dubai" can you suggest me how to change the story's name?

[edit] Herman Van Rompuy named as first permanent EU President (sic)

May I suggest that you add "accuracy" to your check-list? Ten seconds on Wikipedia would have told you that there is no such post as "EU President". (He is President of the European Council, essentially just a chairman).

[edit] Ping

For newsletter thing if you have a chance?    Tris   19:43, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

• I mailed you a segment for it earlier today or yesterday - check your wikinewsie email. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 21:52, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

[edit] New user here, pls assist

Hi! I'm new here, even though I contibute occasionally at Wikipedia. Pls help me, what is the problem with the source I added, and you deleted? That PDF is from the church who supports NCLR, posted at their website, so it's authentic. It's a primary souce. Are we only allowed to use scondary sources here, citing media reports? Pls advice me! Gray62 (talk) 13:05, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

• It is undated; it could possibly be added as an extra section for External links but that should be to the front-page of their site if possible. I'm still working through this to get it re-reviewed. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 13:07, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Thx for your assistance! Imho it would be good if that souce could be added in any way, because it provides insight into the group's goals. And even though some of the content has been cited in the media, not all of it has. Fo instance, I haven't found a news story referencing to that partnership with the New Life Adoption Foundation yet, and that is an interesting aspect. Gray62 (talk) 13:14, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

I also want to expand the section about the whereabouts of the kids now, and what happened after they were transferred to the SOS children's village. This source ok (it's dated): http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/charity-news/haiti-earthquake/haiti-orphan-appeal-trafficked-babies-found-in-bad-state Thx for your advice! Gray62 (talk) 13:23, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

• Yeah, I know SOS Childrens - interviewed their Chief Exec a while back. I'll leave you to it, just remember active voice. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 13:26, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Done that now. Tried my best to use active speech, but since I am German, pls excuse me for writing in an overly bureaucratic tone sometimes :D. Also, pls excuse any grammar or spelling errors! Gray62 (talk) 13:58, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

How about expanding the statesments from the group now? They said in their defense they have papers fom the DomRep, that should be mentioned (only fair). And also maybe a comment from one of the established help organisations working there. Or will the stoy become to long, then? Are there restrictions on the length? Maybe a help guide I should read before going on? Sry for being such a drag on you, but I don't want to mess up the stuff here, and I lack the experience with Wikimedia, of course. Gray62 (talk) 14:05, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

• There's no real upper limit on the length of a Wikinews article; the general "theory" is that, Wikinews is not paper - no column inches constraints. The required balancing act is to keep the story flowing so people will read through the whole thing. Assuming you have the {{Howdy}} template on your talk page, most of the need-to-know stuff is in there. Unfortunately, I'm kinda busy at the moment responding to a press query about the writing competition. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 15:23, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Ah, ok. Well, I'll just careful add some missing info, as outlined above, but will try not to get too far ahead before the next review. Thx! Gray62 (talk) 15:38, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Ok, I've had enough for today. Thx for helping me to such a good start here! I very much appreciate your friendly support. Keep up the great work! Gray62 (talk) 16:50, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Wikimania

Yes, me and user:Wyksztalcioch and others probably too :) Wyksztalcioch want to do an event special for people active in Wikinews. Przykuta (talk) 12:19, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Serena Williams wins the 2010 Australian Open

Hello, I think this article is a good one, but you have to publish news with 72 hours, just look how much content on the news you all miss on, which is a sad travesty with this wiki. I did this because it is historical because 5 Australian Opens is a record, and she tied Billie Jean King and Suzanne Lenglen for most all-time slam wins, and in the Open Era surpassed Margaret Courts 11 mark for solo fourth. I can help you on getting this upto par, but I may not be able to find new info in the past day or so because this event happened on Sat. By the way, I published this within three days, but it took you till the fourth day to review it, which puts this out of the 72 hour window? If this site is really about news then someone except me should have made this article far sooner but I guess it is just news to some people, which is really not news!Bluedogtn (talk) 22:02, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

And by the way, this article is wrong on the prize money Roger Federer wins Australian Open.Bluedogtn (talk) 22:10, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

If this is what this site is about, I will just go back to wikipedia and leave here.Bluedogtn (talk) 22:11, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

• Buh-bye! Have a nice day! --Brian McNeil / ^talk 23:47, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Very nice wordplay

Hi Brian, I hope you are doing well. Just wanted to say that I am lovin the wordplay in the page move you did at Starr gets star; Ringo added to Hollywood Walk of Fame. Very nice! :) Cirt (talk) 22:48, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

• Could not resist that one. I thought "given star" was just wrong anyway because, well, he can't take it hime with him ;-) --Brian McNeil / ^talk 23:13, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Also because you have to make a 'donation' to get your star. That's why so many of these stars are given out at opportune times ... new album, new movie, new book, etc. --SVTCobra 23:24, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Heh, good point. Cirt (talk) 23:33, 9 February 2010 (UTC)